Amazon India is set to foray in the quick commerce segment. The e-commerce major said it will launch a pilot likely in Bengaluru this month to offer consumers everyday essentials in 15 minutes.

Speaking at the sidelines of Amazon Smbhav Summit, Samir Kumar, Country Manager, Amazon India told businessline, “While we continue to focus on implementing our strategy to offer the largest selection at fastest speeds and greatest value to customers in every single pin-code across the country, we are also set to launch a pilot to offer consumers everyday essentials within 15 minutes.”

“Everyday essentials will be beyond just the grocery space. Our algorithms as well as AI will play a key role in determining our everyday essentials assortment. We believe this will drive repeat customers for us and help us in gaining more Prime members in big cities,” he added.

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Kumar, who took over the position of country manager for India in October, said that the Amazon’s vision and mission remains unchanged. 

“We’re going to double down on building India’s largest selection and continue to improve the speed of our delivery not just in the big cities but around the country. There are so many unserved pockets that we call white spaces, which we need to fill. So we are going to be laser focused on growth and making it even more easier for sellers to sell on our platform.”

He added that the recent acquisition of MX Player is helping the company augment its Prime Video offerings.

“If you look at the potential of e-commerce on the whole, we have only scratched the surface as its penetration in India is very low especially in smaller cities. There is huge untapped potential. Our focus on offering 5,000-6,000 items which are everyday essentials in 15 minutes will just be part of the strategy to tap into the overall e-commerce opportunity,“ Kumar said.

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Responding to a query on growing competition from quick commerce platforms in the grocery delivery space, he said that these players are expanding the overall pie.

“Our grocery category continues to grow. Our Prime membership is growing tremendously. Our customer base is growing. Nearly 65 per cent of the customers who shopped with us in the last holiday came from tier-2 and tier-3 cities,” he added.

Meanwhile, the e-commerce major on Tuesday also announced that it is expanding its exports commitment four-fold. It plans to enable over $80 billion in cumulative exports from India by 2030.

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This will be driven by a combination of enabling exports through Amazon’s Global Selling program for Indian MSMEs.

Other announcements included Amazon’s Smbhav Venture Fund inking a MoU with DPIIT on establishing India as a global manufacturing hub and has earmarked $120 million to invest in manufacturing startups.

It also announced the launch of Amazon Freight and Amazon Shipping for middle mile and last mile services offering logistics services to businesses across India.